PM career conversation

1. Product Management
Harshit Kumar
Representing:
Me, Myself & I

2. Agenda
• What is Product & product lifecycle?
• What does a Product Mgr.(PM) do?
• Key responsibilities
• Typical PM interviews
• MBA Courses that can help
• IT vs Non-IT PM roles
• Getting read for PM interview
• Recommended resources

3. What is a Product? 1
• Product: “A term used to describe all goods, services, and knowledge
sold. Products are bundles of attributes (features, functions, benefits,
and uses) and can either be tangible, as in the case of physical goods;
intangible as in the case of those associated with service benefits; or
can be a combination of the two.”
• Products are created by businesses to sell to other businesses
(business-to-business, or B2B) or to consumers (business-to-
consumer, or B2C).
• Product can be IT, non-IT

4. Hierarchy of Products & services1
• Product line: Collection of related
products
• Solution: Related products &
services
• Portfolio: Collection of product
lines

5. Who is a Product Manager?
• Product Management is business management at the product,
product line, or product portfolio level
• The product manager is a person appointed to be a product or
product line “mini-CEO” or general manager.
• The product manager leads a cross-functional product team.
• The product team’s responsibility is to optimize the product’s market
position and financial returns, consistent with corporate, business
unit, or division strategies
• Product manager converts “good ideas” into successful products
• Applies to IT and Non-IT both

6. • P

7. Key responsibilities
• Inbound vs Outbound responsibilities
• P: Product: What to build
• Work with design & development to explain requirements
• Define UX
• Feature prioritization
• Vision/Roadmap
• P: Price: How much to Price
• Based on STP
• P: Promotion, P: Place
• Launch planning and management (GTM)
• Partner management: training, branding

8. 10 avatars of PMs

9. Growth path in PM
PM track
• Junior: PM, PM2 (Fresh MBA thru 5-6 years)
• Senior: Sr. PM (>7-8 years), Principal (> 10-12 years)
• PM People manager, Director, VP, Head of Product, CPO
• Other growth options
• PMs have experience managing cross-functional teams by influence
• Heading a BU, GM, CEO
• Examples: Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen(Adobe), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo)
• Sales/Marketing roles
• Product consulting

10. Typical PM interviews
• Product Case study questions
• Test of structured thinking
• Favorite product: Why? What will you improve in that?
• Build a new product to solve a problem
• Add a new feature in existing product
• Uber for senior citizens
• Mobile app for restaurant chain
• Enter a new market for an existing product
• Guesstimate questions
• Estimate the number of autos near IIM
• How much money does Google make form Gmail?
• Analytical skills
• Making sense out of huge data
• Given the Google search terms for a certain period

11. MBA Courses that can help
• Marketing
• 4P, 5Cs, STP, Laddering
• B2B marketing
• Brand management
• Marketing research
• Surveys, Segmentation etc.
• UX/Design, Design thinking
• Business analytics
• Regression, Factor analysis etc.
• New product development or Product management
• Ideation to GTM
• Finance
• NPV, projections
• Some strategy
• Competition, M&A, GTM/Market-entry

12. IT product management
• IT Software, hardware & services
• App on Android, ios, Windows
• Database, ERP, CRM, OS
• Standalone or as Cloud SaaS
• Phone, PC, Router
• Train booking, Bus booking services, Cloud PaaS/SaaS/IaaS
• IT for Non-IT companies
• Digital business, marketing
• Big Recruiters
• MNCs
• Amazon, Adobe, PayPal, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper, Intuit, Expedia, Uber, Walmart labs
• Indian
• Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Cardekho, Yatra, Makemytrip, Ola, Practo, naukri.com

13. IT PM sample jobs from iimjobs.com
(links might expire)
• PM: Paytm
• PM: Amazon
• PM: Cisco
• PM: AMEX
• PM: Intuit
• PM: Cardekho.com
• PM: Jabong
• PM: Limeroad
• PM: Digital roadmap for Genpact
• PM: Digital business for ABP group
• PM: Banking & Digital payments for Tally

14. Typical roles at big IT firms*
Inbound
Defining features and requirements
Building roadmaps
Release management
Project management
Sales & support training
Building roadmaps
Go To Market
Competitive study
Positioning and messaging
Naming and branding
Customer communication
Product launches
Press and analyst relations
Outbound
Amazon
TPM
Amazon
Product
Mgr.
Microsoft
PM
Microsoft
PMM
Cisco/FK/
Google/
Intuit Program Mgr.
Cisco/FK/
Google/
Intuit/Yatra/Expedia/
Adobe/Practo
Product Mgr.
Microsoft
EM Solutions
HCL/Accenture
/TCS/TechM
Product Mgr.
*Subject to change

15. Non-IT product management
• Banking/Finance
• Credit-card PM: Managing rewards program, partner tie-ups, merchant tie-ups etc.
• Fintech: Managing partners, marketing: Paytm, Western Union
• PM: Retail and SME General Insurance products e.g. IndusInd Bank
• Investments: PMS, Mortgage
• Retail
• Responsible for product(s) e.g.
• Supply-chain, Back-end/SCM
• Analytics
• Data Analytics & Insights e.g. AMEX
• Research & deal sourcing e.g. Tracxn
• Analytics Products
• Others
• Building materials PM: Interact with contractors and customers so as to understand
product needs
• Healthcare, Pharma: Manage the brand portfolio

16. Non-IT PM sample jobs from iimjobs.com
(links might expire)
• PM: General insurance
• PM: Building material industry
• PM: Healthcare
• PM: Home loans & mortgage
• PM: Pharma
• PM: Glass MNC
• PM: Car retail finance
• PM: Equipment manufacturing
• PM: Fintech
• PM: BFSI, MF

17. Getting ready
IT
• Your resume should showcase experience: product, analytics & domain
• IT services people: If they have worked on product for a client or domain expertise
• Technical: prep on things on your resume: architecture,
Non-IT
• Resume should show domain expertise and some product experience
IT/Non-IT
• Read a lot of stuff
• Techcrunch, Quora, ET, Podcasts: TechNews
• Write a blog atleast once a month
• Sharpen product thinking, Play with products, form opinions
• Apps, websites
• Observe UX
• Products you liked, disliked
• Build on domain
• Keep facts in memory
• Revenues, # downloads
• Discuss, debate, share thoughts with peers
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18. Resources
• Books:
• Product management handbook
• Cracking PM interview
• Product management desk reference
• Lean start-up: Eric Ries
• Lean analytics
• UX for Lean Startups
• Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love
• Videos
• The Art of Product Management with Sachin Rekhi, Wharton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huTSPanUlQM
• 16 Killer videos on Product Mgmt. essentials
• https://userbrain.net/blog/12-killer-product-management-videos
• Design thinking by Tim Brown, IDEO
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-hzefHdAMk&t=152s
• Others
• KPIs for apps
• Guestimate Q’s
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19. More Online resources
• www.productmanagerhq.com
• The Top 12 Product Management Mistakes
• The Product Manager’s Essential Reading List of 2016
• The Famous PM Reading List on Medium
• The Past and Future of Product Management
• http://www.crackingthepminterview.com/
• The Art of Product Management (author Jackie Bavaro’s blog)
• What distinguishes the top 1% of product manager’s from the top 10%?
• Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager (Ben Horowitz)
• How to Hire a Product Manager (Ken Norton)
• The Art of Decision Making as a Product Manager (Sachin Rekhi)
• 3 Reasons Better Products Don’t Always Win (Sachin Rekhi)
• What I Look For in a Product Manager (David Lifson)
• Be a Great Product Leader (Adam Nash)
• Getting Hired: How to Get a Job in Product Management
• The Product Manager Handbook (Carl Shan, Brittany Cheng)
• The Art of Delivery (Ibrahim Bashir)
• The PM Interview (Raphael Korach)
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